You may be looking at your home right now and feel overwhelmed to even know where to start. First, cut yourself some slack and commend yourself for just being committed to STARTING! That is half the battle! And just like any habit, it will take time & consistency to maintain but you will be on your way to a more simplified life, stress free life, or whatever your goal might be that is driving you to get organized.

To get started, it might help to start small and get some wins under your belt. Start in a place where you can build some momentum.  Maybe start in the room that you spend the most time in as you are more likely to see the tangible benefits.   And in that room, start with a category that feels easy.  Not a category you have a lot of sentimental attachment to- like going through old photos.

Say you start in your bedroom with work out clothes. Here would be the process to start de-cluttering:

1.) Empty the Space:

First empty the space/(spaces) where these items are currently, find some space on the floor or bed, and begin to put items into categories. If your work out clothes have also made their way to other bedrooms, the car, etc. then go gather them so you can asses all items at the same time. Create categories based on how you live and what makes sense to you- perhaps you have a pile for “clothes I run in” versus “clothes I do yoga in”. You could break down the categories further into subcategories.

2.) Quick Toss:

As you empty the space, immediately put in a “trash” pile any workout clothes that have visible holes or perhaps have stain marks to the point where you can’t/don’t have time to address. While you may be tempted to donate these items instead of putting in the trash pile, it is important to be respectful & give our best to others in need.

3.) Down & Dirty Edit:

Time to further edit down your items and ask yourself some questions: do I even like this item? do I actually need this item? When’s the last time I wore this item? does this item fit me? do I have two of the same item? As you look at each item, assess if it is serving you now in the PRESENT. If someday you decide to take up biking, you will probably be excited about purchasing some bike shorts that fit you at that time and that are currently in trend versus the ones you’ve had since high school- (I’m guilty here on this one!!). Also remember you have a washer/dryer so that can help keep your favorite work out items in rotation & help you part with the items that are just “so-so”. As you edit down these items, you can decide if you want to donate/sell/gift to a friend (don’t pass your mess here though! only offer if you think they would like it and be ok if they say no!).

4.) Home Sweet Home:

After editing & making those tough decisions, now it’s time to decide the ideal place your work out clothes should go based on frequency & ease of use (more frequently used items should be lower/easy to reach/accessible). Maybe you dedicate a different space in your closet for work out clothes or the home they were in before works better now because the items have room to breathe. Keep similar items/categories together as you put items back in their new home.

5.) Optimize:

Maybe you decided your workout clothes should be dedicated to two drawers in your dresser. Now you can optimize the space by using drawer dividers to split the drawer into thirds to help keep the clothes with their appropriate categories. Or perhaps you prefer to see your items and you decide to allocate a set space in your closet to hang your tops and keep corresponding activities pants/shorts grouped in categories in fun bins on a shelf underneath. Now is a good time to take measurements to make sure containers/bins would fit in the new home before purchasing. Labeling the bin or inside of the drawer helps you quickly remember where the new designated home.

6.) Maintain:

It is a huge win to get to this point- you have let go of those workout clothes that weren’t serving you, to shine light on the workout clothes that give you joy & that you can easily find so you can keep up the habit. The last step is maintaining the space- making sure that the space you have allocated to workout doesn’t creep into other areas. Also ensuring that you assess what you have first before purchasing new work out items.

Organizing your home is hard work, but if you start with a small space & do it in manageable chunks of time, you will be on your way in no time towards taking back control of your living space and moving it closer towards your end goals!